About the Greenway

The East Coast Greenway, conceived in 1991, is the nation’s most ambitious long-distance urban trail. By connecting existing and planned shared-use trails, a continuous, traffic-free route is being formed, serving self-powered users of all abilities and ages. At 2,900 miles long, the Greenway links Calais, Maine, at the Canadian border, with Key West, Florida. Alternate routes add another 2,000 miles to the ECG trail system.

A linear park, the East Coast Greenway is almost entirely on public right-of-way, incorporating waterfront esplanades, park paths, abandoned railroad corridors, canal towpaths, and pathways along highway corridors. Designed to accommodate tourists, locals, and users of all abilities, the East Coast Greenway has universal appeal.

The East Coast Greenway can be used today. By connecting existing trails with carefully selected on-road routing, a complete route is in place from Maine to Florida. Today, nearly 30% of the route is trail.

Tourists and the East Coast Greenway

As a continuous long-distance route, the Greenway is a new tourism venue, enticing domestic and foreign tourists to explore the Eastern Seaboard in a leisurely and intimate manner. The ECG offers muscle-powered users a way to see this most urbanized and historical of American corridors. Our wayfinding tools – ECG signage, maps, and guides – help tourists navigate the route. ECG tourism has an increasingly significant impact on local economies.

The East Coast Greenway and Local Use

The Greenway also has an important local role, serving as a close-to-home facility for the 45 million people who live within the ECG’s home counties. For them, the trail functions as a kind of Central Park for the region. For many, just out their back door, the Greenway is a safe place to walk, jog, bicycle, skate, ski, horseback ride, bird watch, fish, push the baby carriage or just stroll with friends. The Greenway can provide an escape, a tranquil place for some quiet time alone. Children can use it to walk to school or get to the park, adults can commute to work, and everyone will find it a well-located spot for an hour of exercise or a weekend outing.

A Recreational Route with Universal Appeal

People of all ages and abilities enjoy ECG trails, such as the Route 9A Bike/Ped Path in NYC (photo at right), for recreation, exercise, commuting, running errands, and more.

The Greenway is not designed for those seeking a high-speed cycling route. A multitude of on-road routes better serve their needs. But, as a traffic-free, relatively flat route, the Greenway is a safe facility for people of all ages and physical abilities, including children, families, and the elderly.

Being almost entirely on public right-of-way, the ECG is accessible to all. It offers a transportation alternative for those whose independence is compromised in our car-dependent culture: children, people with disabilities, the elderly, and people who do not own a car. In addition, the Greenway is easily accessible in many areas via public transportation, and a growing network of trails and bicycle routes along the coast enable easy access for much of the region.

Winding from city to city through urban centers, urban neighborhoods, suburban communities, and rural areas, users come from all of these populations. Urban dwellers in particular, distant from traditional back-country trails, value this public open space that provides a convenient place for recreation and a means to get away to the country without car dependence. The Greenway goes directly through many underserved urban neighborhoods, providing sorely needed access and recreational opportunities for people in these communities.

To find out which sections of the Greenway are currently appropriate for various types of users, visit ourTrip Planner.

The East Coast Greenway is the backbone of an emerging network of trails along the eastern seaboard that can contribute, both actually and symbolically, to priorities, including:

Improving public health by empowering active transportation and safe recreation

Lowering pollution by substituting car trips with bicycling and walking

Providing greenway construction & maintenance jobs

Increasing transportation options

Giving non-drivers, such as children, the elderly, and people without cars, more independence

Reducing roadway congestion

Enhancing local economic development

Connecting people and communities

Helping to create new and inviting public spaces for everyone to enjoy

Raising land and home values within the greenway corridor

The ECG provides a way for non-motorized travelers to move safely from town to town, where they would otherwise have to use a car or travel on an unsafe road. Here, cyclists cross the Calhoun Street Bridge from Trenton, NJ to Morrisville,, PA, safely separated from road traffic.

Multi-use trail development is moving ahead full-tilt all across the United States where opportunities to restore public access to our rivers and waterfronts, to convert abandoned rail lines to new uses, and to make our communities more bicycle- and pedestrian-friendly have generated strong public involvement. Citizens recognize that trails can become an integral part of local transportation systems, provide recreational outlets for all age groups, and help promote healthier lifestyles.

The East Coast Greenway, with the allure of a long-distance route, can help move local trail projects that play into its corridor ahead. Linking these discrete local trails into a continuous route reaching from Maine to Florida is a challenge of major proportions, but with enormous value to the communities it passes through and to the people who use it. A national recreational resource, the ECG can enhance the local economic value of local trail segments by bringing new users with their wallets to local communities.

The East Coast Greenway Alliance joins local trail to local trail, initially through on-road connections and ultimately through the construction of additional off-road trails. The Greenway serves as a spine route, linking with other long distance trails, like the coast-to-coast American Discovery Trail, the Hudson River Greenway, and the C&O Canal National Park, helping to create an interlinked national trail system. It connects city to city, city to suburb, and suburb to rural area. The Greenway links together such key sites as state capitals, college campuses, local, state, and national park systems, and outstanding cultural, historical, and natural landmarks offering themed travel possibilities.

By championing the vision and harnessing the resources to make these connections, the East Coast Greenway Alliance fosters the creation of a national resource which some have referred to as an urbanized version of the Appalachian Trail.

Almost a third of the Greenway is now in place as an off-road route on traffic-free trail segments (834 miles or 29%). A complete travel route composed of carefully chosen and field-checked on-road linkages is defined and mapped, allowing experienced cyclists to use the entire route today. Maps and cue sheets for the entire route are available, and we are posting trail markers to ease the wayfinding process. Users of all abilities experience the Greenway today on the more than 100 completed trail sections located in each of the 15 states and DC along the Greenway corridor.

Water Crossings

One of the greatest challenges to completing the East Coast Greenway is crossing water. While there are bridges to cross all waterways along the ECG route, not all of these bridges have bicycle/pedestrian access. In these cases, it is critical for the ECGA and other advocates to work with states to include bike/ped paths in bridge reconstruction plans.

Here’s a short list of bridges that have special accommodations for bikes and/or pedestrians:

Sikorsky Bridge (CT: Housatonic River)

Casco Bay Bridge (ME: Casco Bay)

Calhoun St Bridge (NJ/PA: Delaware River)

Arlington Memorial Bridge (DC/VA: Potomac River)

Numerous bridges on the FL Keys

Ravenel Bridge (SC: Cooper River)

Close the Gaps Campaign

A 2010 Strategic Committee, consisting of ten members from ECGA Board and Advisory Board members and heads of other trail-related organizations, met during 2004 to shape a strategic plan to guide Alliance work through 2010. The Committee created goals for the following six years and recommended capacity measures to increase our effectiveness, including the development of a Trail Council that assists our Board of Trustees. We are now beginning our strategic planning process for the 2020 time frame. Read more about the Close the Gaps Campaign.

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Your Support is Essential to Our Success

A developed East Coast Greenway addresses so many of today’s challenges - rising health costs, pollution, pedestrian and bicyclist safety, and sustainable economic growth. We need to complete a safe and accessible route as soon as possible!